Blow In

The blow In project centres around a text I wrote, dealing with my experiences as the child of South African immigrants living in Connemara, Ireland. I put particular emphasis on the my experience of the landscape and the hostility my family faced from the local community. In my performances, instead of presenting just a disembodied voice, I tried to foreground the corporeal actions that can accompany recollection. I attempted to focus on my body as I live it now and how I relate to my personal history through it.

Outcome 2: 3D Animation

Blow-In 2 (without subs) from Simon Crowe on Vimeo.

Outcome 1: Video Performance

Blow In 1 from Simon Crowe on Vimeo.

Text:

South Africa ... my birth ... no memories ... only the fact ... No ... one memory ... but later ... That time by the pool ... in the pool ... No ... not now ... Ireland ... the first house ... Burnt ... A gas leak ... electric heater with exposed element ... A charred husk ... No memory ... Just scar-tissue ... taut ... over pale knuckles ... South Africa ... little fleck ... Being ... by the pool ... Grasped into the cool .. wet ... Held afloat by squat ... undulating light-clad creatures... Second House ... An ocarina ... for the North Atlantic's bitter breath ... An ocarina of pebbedash ... with white gables ... Always the same tone ... all holes blocked ... until once ... was it twice? ... Rapidly ... dissonantly ... one-by-one... opened ... Not allowed beyond the teaming metal webs that bulge overhead ... parents' studio ... Out ... over soggy earth ... past towering cows ... to where ... bruise-blue brine laps stone and shingle ... with each wave ... the gon-gon hole ... arch of glum rock ... gulps ... forever choking and spewing ... Easier ... to keep the void out ... so profuse with emerald green and rich umber ... to spread over the blank face of things ... no need ... as now ... to yammer ... Vinous land ... cavorted and fell ... tumbled ... boulders churned ... blades of long golden grass ... danced ... all still now ... a wan modernity ... clings to overhead telephone lines ... bodies cling to it ... as scraps of sheep's wool to barbed wire fences ... On yellow linoleum ... the forbidden heaps ... dust and sundry fragments ... The man who passed ... waving ... along the lane ... I in the garden ... did I wave back? ... not a trace ... on his smile ... the venom ... the bile ... vented ... at us ... oblivious ... I responded candidly ... Lurched into a dingy corridor ... The traitor's stool ... the sharp taste of dread ... I'd do no better ... least no worse ... to pass it over in silence than blabber on ... to let the little shard of victimhood fester in my brain ... than attempt extraction ... Iteration of ... the treatment ... old algorithm ... routine flesh ... coalesced ... amid the boulders ... darkening the ground around the offending ... home ... What business have they here? ... none ... what business ... none ... putting things as they should be ... out ... Shovel cleaves the peat ... a recent accumulation ... tears the fibres ... cast aside ... driven in ... like the last sod ... heaved away ... transparent ... driven in ... like the next sod ... heaved away ... nothing ... The ocarina had ceased its clattering ... splintered keening ... entered in the dark ... mummy ... why is there glass in the bath tub? Brother and I in the back of the transit van ... bowling clamour ... pelted with stones ... brother and I ... two pebbles cast about in our parents' tumbler ... Night ... we four slept ... on the sunken shop floor ... The blue hostel ... and the next hostel ... or was that one blue ... and away ... to

The Look

This interactive 3D animation deals with the act of looking and the active/passive dichotomy.

Click here to access Unity3d content for The Look

Below are renders of the high-resolution models from which I derived low-resolution models for Unity3d:

Corrupted

This is an interactive audiovisual piece, comprising two similar but distinct versions. The raw materials for these were digital 'found objects' and recorded audio performances.

Epilepsy warning: This piece can produce rapidly flashing images which may result in seizures and/or loss of consciousness in those who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy.

Stimulus Progression (Elevator Music)

Stimulus Progression (Elevator Music) from Simon Crowe on Vimeo.

Stimulus progression was a term coined within the Muzak corporation. It referred to an ideal model of background music, where over a period of, say, fifteen minutes, the audio would gradually progress from least stimulating to most stimulating (A measure of stimulation might be based on tempo, pitch and amplitude). This was believed to have an uplifting effect on workers and consumers.

Background music is supposed to achieve its subtle psychological effect by being heard but not actively listened to. Stereotypical 'elevator music' is benign, but in this animation I have attempted to construct a progression of grating malevolence.

Monitist Place of Worship

As the title suggests, I explored the similarities between the Christian, monotheistic organised religion with which I am familiar and the cult of consumerism which has emerged from Western capitalism. I focused on the stories spun by both institutions that construct a version of reality which I find to be largely removed from lived experience.